A woman Wednesday was sentenced to two years’ probation and 10 months in prison for the fatal shooting a a friend.

Katelyn R. Stapleton, 27, of Collinsville, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in exchange for a prosecution agreement to the 10—month sentence, along with probation. She was given credit for 10 months served in the Madison County Jail since the shooting on Feb. 23, so she was ordered released after reporting to the probation office.

She has been held in lieu of $100,000 bail.

Authorities said the shooting was an accident. Interviews with witnesses confirmed that Stapleton and her friend, Andrew M. Birch, were playing with the gun.

Birch died at his home just five days short of his 24th birthday. There were three other people in the home at the time of the shooting, police said.

Chief Deputy State’s Attorney Jennifer Vucich told the court Wednesday that both Stapleton and Birch were handling the gun, when Stapleton pulled the trigger and shot Birch in the head.

Friday, November 7, 2014

He admitted he wasn't doing too well before he joined the Marines. A real interviewer would have asked him to elaborate on that. The Marine Corps takes lots of low-intelligence individuals with serious mental problems as long as they can learn to march and run and salute. They're called cannon fodder.

When he said he was kept for 30 days in four-point restraints to the bed, I wish Greta had asked him how he ate or went to the bathroom.

About his guns, she might have asked him why the guns were in the car and not in a gun safe. What state was his concealed carry permit issued in and did that allow driving around in California with guns in the car?

The two seats in Colorado’s senate won through a historic recall election over gun control in 2013 have once again returned to candidates from the Democratic Party this week.

Last spring, state Senate President John Morse (D-Colorado Springs) and Sen. Angela Giron (D-Pueblo), both strongly backed bills to ban magazines that hold more than 15 rounds of ammunition and to require background checks for private transfers, including those made over the Internet and at gun shows. Their passion for gun control cost the two their jobs by the fall of 2013 at the hands of a recall election, the first in the Centennial State’s history.

The pendulum has swung back this year and the two seats, occupied by Republicans George Rivera and Bernie Herpin, have once again gone blue.

“Those were Democratic seats to begin with,” Political analyst Bob Loevy told KRDO. “The unusual situation surrounding of the recall shifted them Republican. Once we had the regular electorate voting in a regular election, the seats swiftly went back Democratic.”

A Utah schoolteacher whose gun accidentally went off in an elementary school bathroom agreed Wednesday to pay a fine and take a firearm-safety class as part of a plea deal.

Michelle Montgomery has already paid $200 to replace a toilet that exploded when her 9 mm handgun discharged in the faculty bathroom on Sept. 11. She pleaded no contest Wednesday to a misdemeanor charge of illegal discharge of a gun. It will be dismissed if she pays a $705 court fee and commits no new crimes over the next year.

St. Joseph County deputies are investigating what they're calling an accidental shooting.

They say a 56-year-old man was working on a tractor in the area of Wing Road in Leonidas Township, when a loaded .22 caliber rifle fell off one of the tractor tires.

When the rifle hit the ground, it discharged, shooting the victim in the ankle.

The victim was taken to the hospital.

Right now, deputies do not suspect foul play or believe that alcohol or drugs were factors.No foul play, no alcohol, no drugs, just bumbling stupidity and the failure to safely handle a weapon. No problem.

The gun-violence-prevention movement scored an enormous victory in Washington state – the only place in the country that voted directly on gun safety legislation. Voters in Washington overwhelming approved I-594, a ballot measure that will institute universal background checks on all private gun sales. Even though the NRA spent millions of dollars against the measure and put up a competing measure to sow confusion, Washington voters were resolute in their call for stronger gun laws.

This successful ballot initiative is now a model for campaigns in other states. A warning to legislators: If you won't pass stronger gun laws, then the people will!

We also had an important trifecta of winning Governors - Cuomo (NY), Malloy (CT) and Hickenlooper (CO). All championed the most comprehensive gun-safety legislation in the wake of the tragic Newtown shootings and were targeted for defeat by the NRA. In fact, Gov. Hickenlooper was the NRA's number one target this year. The NRA is not invincible!

At the beginning of this year, I asked you and your fellow NRA members to help win the most important election in our freedom’s history.

We knew it wouldn't be easy.

We knew we’d be fighting against more anti-gun money and more anti-gun hatred than we’ve ever experienced in any election. We knew we’d be going up against mainstream media elitists who have all but declared war on our Second Amendment freedom. And we knew we’d be going toe-to-toe against the most anti-gun president we’ve ever seen.

But YOU answered the call. YOU chose to Stand and Fight for your freedom.

And yesterday, thanks to YOU and YOUR support, we sent a clear message to Washington, D.C. and politicians at every level of government that they have just two choices:

Defend our Second Amendment freedom, or face the consequences on Election Day!

Nearly everywhere you look on the map – Arkansas, Colorado, West Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Wisconsin, Texas, Kentucky, Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Idaho – the pro-gun candidates we endorsed through NRA’s Political Victory Fund won big races over their anti-gun opponents.

In Maryland, we played an instrumental role in CRUSHING Barack Obama and Michael Bloomberg’s gun ban candidate for governor!

The results speak for themselves. In nearly every close race, and even in some races that weren’t predicted to be close, YOUR leadership as an NRA member made all the difference.

This is something from the page's owner that verifies this is his opinion.

Anyone who believes this shit knows nothing about the US Constitution or its history. The founders could have just said "fuck it" and not bothered with drafting a constitution if they felt this way. The US would be even more of a piddly insignificant country than it is already. It would be in there with the rest of the Central and Southern American countries if they wanted to see this.

In fact, given that the French Revolution was going on at about the same time the US Constitution was being drafted, they could have gone full out crazzzeeeee!

How does the rest of the western world manage without guns to make them
more FREE and manly? Everyone I see who is carrying a gun or shoots
people in the U.S. looks like he has one friend and he is imaginary!

This is a cultural acceptance of violence and guns as perfectly OK, but a
hint of nudity is seen as dangerously corrupting to youth. Where have
such skewed and twisted values come from and why are they so acceptable
in the U.S., but seen as strange in every other western country? It’s
almost a reversal of what is OK and seen as normal everywhere else. What
is strange is that the U.S. rarely looks outside the U.S., so sees this
as perfectly normal. Then you have a whole “but that’s Europe, or
wherever, they are weird” going on. The sad truth is the U.S. is the
weird country, the one out of step, being led down an escalating route
of gun deaths by an uncaring NRA and politicians being lobbied by the
NRA. The U.S. is such a beautiful country, full of decent people, but is
being skewed and controlled by a minority who even with their vast
resources and endless propaganda have less than 36 percent of the
population behind them.

A 20-year-old man was charged with murder Tuesday in the fatal Oct. 31 shooting of a longtime friend, killed by a shot from a gun the suspect said he thought was unloaded, authorities said.

Damian L. Joseph, 20, is charged in the death of Jamal Cheeks, 21, who was fatally shot about 3:55 p.m. Oct. 31 inside Joseph's home in the 2000 block of 22nd Avenue.

Officer Phong Tran said Joseph initially denied being the gunman. But when confronted with conflicting evidence and witness statements, he remorsefully admitted pointing a semi-automatic pistol he thought was unloaded at Cheeks from a few feet away before pulling the trigger and shooting him in the neck, Tran said.

According to court documents, Joseph said he was "playing" with the gun and "accidentally" shot Cheeks.

Cheeks died at the scene. Joseph was detained there and eventually arrested. The gun was recovered.

Even though Joseph said the shooting was accidental, authorities said the murder charge was filed because while he may have thought the gun was unloaded, he made an inherently dangerous and conscious decision to point it at Cheeks and pull the trigger.

Police said Joseph told investigators he had bought the gun from someone on the street for protection.

Voters in Washington state chose to advance a ballot initiative on Tuesday that will expand background checks for guns and effectively close what is known as the "gun show loophole."

Initiative 594, which passed with 60 percent of the vote, mandates background checks on all gun sales and transfers, including at gun shows and online. The measure makes exceptions for weapons transferred within families and for the purchase of antique guns.

The passage of I-594 closely follows the Oct. 24 shooting at Marysville-Pilchuck High School in Marysville, Washington, that left three students dead and three more injured.

As has been the case with previous mass shootings, public support for stricter gun laws increased in the week following the Marysville shooting, according to a survey conducted by local PBS affiliate KCTS-9. At the same time, the poll showed an increase in the percentage of voters who said they would oppose new background checks, suggesting that the shooting galvanized public opinion on both sides.

The increased opposition in some quarters to expanded background checks may have been due in part to the presence of Initiative 591, a competing measure, on the ballot. I-591 would have loosened gun laws by prohibiting background checks on gun purchases unless required by federal law. Washington residents ultimately rejected the measure, with more than 54 percent voting against it according to early returns.

Washington state voters appear ready to go where their politicians fear to tread and impose greater gun controls in the face of a well-funded campaign by the National Rifle Association and a rival spoiler measure on Tuesday’s ballot.

Opinion polls suggest a clear majority in favour of requiring background checks on all firearms sales in Washington state including at gun shows and through private advertising. The campaign for the only major piece of gun control legislation on the ballot in the US this year, Initiative 594, was launched in the wake of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting on the other side of the country two years ago, in which 20 children and six adults were murdered. But the campaign drew to a close with a school killing in Washington itself in which five students were shot in the Marysville school north of Seattle last month.

From left: the Rev. Steven Kelly of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Detroit; the Rev. Wendell Gibbs Jr., bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan; and Dennis Lennox, a member of St. John’s Episcopal Church, at the 180th annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan.

The Episcopal Church in Michigan has passed a controversial resolution calling for stiffer gun control, drawing sharp criticism from conservative members who say it violates the right to bear arms.

The dispute is part of a larger debate among Episcopalians and other mainline Protestants about the future of their churches as they face sharp declines in membership.

Some conservatives say the gun resolution is the latest example of the Episcopal Church focusing on promoting liberal social issues such as gun control and same-sex marriage instead of the gospel, alienating congregants. But liberals say that their views are in line with the teachings of Christianity.

By a clear majority, members of the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan — which consists of southeast Michigan and the Lansing and Jackson areas — voted recently to approve a resolution calling for universal background checks on all gun purchases, banning all sales of semiautomatic weapons, high-impact ammunition, high-capacity ammunition magazines, and making gun trafficking a federal crime.

"banning all sales of semiautomatic weapons"

How do you explain this line?

1. typo (they meant to say fully automatic)
2. ignorance (they don't know the difference)
3. conspiracy by evil fanatical gun grabbers (they tried to slip this in there in order to essentially ban all guns)

LORAIN, Ohio - Lorain Police say 24-year-old Angelica Melendez said her three-year-old daughter was shot in the head by her four-year-old brother, who didn't know it was a real gun.

Police said the 911 call was filled with chaos and confusion caused by the dad who lied to police, telling them two men came to the door wearing hooded sweatshirts, shot at him and the "bullet struck the girl," according to the police report.Police said the father was heard speaking in Spanish in the background, telling the mother to say men who were breaking in and fired a gun."He did make up a contrived story. I don't know if he was trying to protect the four year old or protect himself, if he's not allowed to have a handgun or not," said Lieutenant Roger Watkins.

Police said 27-year-old Jeremy Morales kept the loaded gun in a bedroom dresser and that a prosecutor will decide if Morales should be charged for not securing the gun and for lying to police."He could be charged with endangering children and it depends on whether the child makes it, and it's going to be up to the Lorain County Prosecutor," Watkins said.

"He COULD be charged????"

You know what would make this a lot simpler? Proper gun control laws, including licensing of all gun owners and registration of all guns. If we had that, the responsible person could be easily identified.

The attorney representing a Missouri woman charged in the early morning death of her cousin in western Pennsylvania calls it the result of an accidental shooting.

Twenty-eight-year-old Stephanie Munizza of Maryland Heights is charged with criminal homicide in Allegheny County in the 4 a.m. Saturday shooting death of 27-year-old Joshua Poremski in Upper St. Clair.

Investigators said in a criminal complaint that the two had been talking about Munizza possibly getting a concealed carry permit, and Poremski offered his gun to her.

Witnesses told police that she gripped the gun with two hands and pointed it at him, and he asked her whether she would be able to shoot someone, and the gun discharged.

Defense attorney David Shrager called the death “a terrible, terrible tragedy” but said it was accidental.

“Even the parents of the descendant are insisting that this was an accident and don’t want her in jail,” said Shrager.

Police say the shooting happened after both cousins were heavily drinking.

A city firefighter has been placed on administrative leave after accidentally shooting another man overnight, public safety officials said Sunday.

The victim, Jose C. Medina, 28, is in stable condition, according to police. He sustained non-life threatening injuries to his jaw and neck, Deputy Chief Brian Foley said.

No charges have been filed against the shooter, Justin M. Wood, a 25-year-old East Hartford resident and Hartford firefighter. Foley said Wood is licensed to carry a firearm and has been cooperating with detectives.

The incident remains under investigation, Foley said. According to an incident report, the shooting happened just after midnight Sunday at an apartment on Webster Street. Wood was showing Medina the handgun when it accidentally discharged, the report says.

Wood has been placed on administrative leave until the investigation is completed, fire officials said. He has been with the department since December 2012 and is currently assigned to Engine Co. 5.

Sunday, November 2, 2014

There are myriad reasons hunting advocates give for the decline: growing urbanization that puts more kids out-of-touch with the land; landowners’ increasing unwillingness to let hunters onto their property; an inability to compete with video games, cell phones and other accoutrements of modern life; and increasingly busier activities schedules that take free time from kids — and parents — that could be used to hunt. The result, according to a report released by multiple hunting organizations, has been that there aren’t enough young hunters to replace the current population of adults. (Biggest surprise to me was the state that had the lowest replacement rate: Michigan.)

There’s been no lack of effort in trying to attract youths to hunting. Hunting organizations have been successful in lobbying state legislatures to reduce the minimum age a child can go with a licensed adult on a hunt; at least 30 have done so, including the unexpectedly woebegone hunting state of Michigan. Many states also have programs that allow youth hunters to start their season ahead of schedule, when wildlife would be at its most plentiful. Yet the declines remain unabated.

It seems to me there is one factor being left out in the discussion as to why fewer youths are hunting — the current American gun culture. In my lifetime — I’m 44 years old — gun culture has turned from the hunters I see on my Facebook feed to the Second Amendment, stand-your-ground absoluteness I think many more of us also see on our Facebook feed.

Actually, the turnaround in gun culture, based on these numbers from Pew Research Center, has happened in the lifetimes of my 17-year-old son and 15-year-old daughter:

About half (48%) of gun owners said the main reason they owned a gun was for protection, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in February 2013. About three-in-ten (32%) said they owned a gun for hunting. That was a turnaround from 1999 when 49% said they owned a gun for hunting and 26% said they had a gun for protection in an ABC News/Washington Post poll.

According to a new poll from Gallup, the numbers have fallen to near-record lows in just a two-year period from 58 percent to 47 percent. This 11-point drop was due to both Republicans and Democrats easing on support.

On the Democrat side, it represents a drop of eight points from 79 percent to 71 percent. On the Republican side, it fell from 39 percent to 29 percent. Among Liberals and Conservatives, the numbers fell from 75 to 67 and 44 to 32, respectively.

“Public demand for stricter gun sale laws is returning to levels seen throughout the past decade. After seeing a spike in support for stricter laws following the Newtown school shooting in 2012, the call for more stringent laws has settled to near-record lows. The percentage of Americans who say that handguns should not be banned is at a near-record high as well,” Gallup stated.

Americans also believed by an overwhelming majority of 73 percent that handguns should not be banned, while 25 percent said that they should be except for police and “authorized users.”